Austin Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Austin’s Dedicated Litigators for Medical Negligence Victims

When medical error shatters your life, you need litigators who combine legal strength with deep medical insight. Lee, Gober & Reyna is dedicated to securing justice and maximum compensation for victims of medical malpractice in Texas. 

We hold negligent healthcare providers accountable, so you can focus on healing. Contact our Austin medical malpractice attorneys today for a confidential, free case evaluation.

Your Rights in a Texas Medical Malpractice Claim

Your legal rights as a medical malpractice victim in Texas are extensive but subject to strict procedural rules and limits established by the state legislature. Protecting these rights requires prompt legal action.

Fundamental Patient Rights

These rights form the basis of a negligence lawsuit, demonstrating the duty of care owed to you:

• Right to Professional Care: You are legally entitled to medical treatment that adheres to the accepted standard of care that a reasonably prudent and competent provider would deliver.
• Right to Informed Consent: Providers must fully disclose the risks, benefits, and alternatives of any procedure or treatment before you can agree to it.
• Right to Privacy & Access: Your medical records are confidential, and you maintain the right to access them and authorize their disclosure to your legal counsel.

Rights If You’ve Been Harmed by Medical Negligence

If a medical professional, such as a doctor or surgeon, violates your fundamental patient rights, you have additional rights. 

• Right to Compensation: If you’ve suffered harm due to negligence, you can seek economic and non-economic damages for your losses.
• Right to Legal Recourse: You have the right to hold the negligence parties legally and financially accountable for your injuries. 
• Right to Legal Representation: You should always contact an Austin medical malpractice lawyer to handle these complex and sophisticated cases. 

Procedural Deadlines and Requirements

Successfully bringing a medical malpractice claim in Texas requires adherence to strict statutes in the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code:

• Strict Statute of Limitations: You generally have two years from the date of the negligent medical act or from the end of the related course of treatment to file a lawsuit.
• Mandatory Expert Report: Within 120 days of the defendant filing their answer, you must serve a detailed, written expert report that identifies the standard of care, how it was breached, and how the breach caused your injury. Failure to meet this deadline results in dismissal.
• Pre-Suit Notice: You must provide written notice by certified mail to the defendant at least 60 days before filing suit.

The legal procedures involved with medical malpractice claims is much more complex than a standard personal injury lawsuit. It’s essential to work with an Austin medical malpractice attorney at Lee, Gober & Reyna who understands Texas’ laws and can ensure your case meets necessary deadlines and requirements. 

Types of Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle in Texas

Even in Austin’s leading medical facilities, errors occur when healthcare providers fail to meet the accepted standard of care. These breaches of duty transform routine procedures or diagnoses into devastating instances of malpractice. 

The most common categories of medical malpractice in Central Texas include:

• Diagnostic Errors: This involves misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or the failure to diagnose a critical condition like cancer or heart disease, preventing timely and effective treatment.
• Surgical Errors: Mistakes during operations, such as performing surgery on the wrong body part, leaving instruments or sponges inside the patient, or damaging nearby nerves and organs.
• Medication Errors: Prescribing or administering the wrong drug or dosage, failing to check for dangerous drug interactions, or administering medication to the wrong patient.
• Birth Injuries: Negligence during labor and delivery, including failure to promptly monitor or respond to fetal distress, or the improper use of forceps or vacuums, leading to severe harm like cerebral palsy.
• Anesthesia Errors: Administering an improper amount of anesthesia, failing to monitor the patient’s vitals during a procedure, or neglecting a patient’s known allergies.

These errors impose immediate and long-term consequences, demanding extensive and costly corrective care. When a medical professional’s negligence causes a substantial injury, it is essential to investigate the cause to secure the financial recovery needed for a lifetime of care.

Medical Malpractice Injuries that Occur Due to Negligence

A medical mistake can result in life-changing injuries. Common serious and catastrophic injuries caused by medical malpractice include:

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Often caused by oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) due to anesthesia errors, birth complications, or negligent respiratory monitoring.
• Spinal Cord Injury (SCI): Resulting in partial or complete paralysis (paraplegia or quadriplegia) from surgical errors during spinal procedures or mismanaged post-surgical care leading to infection.
• Birth Injuries: Permanent conditions in newborns, such as Cerebral Palsy or severe nerve damage (Erb’s Palsy) due to delayed C-section or improper use of delivery tools.
• Amputations/Severe Disfigurement: Required due to untreated, rapidly spreading infections (like sepsis or MRSA acquired in a hospital) or surgical errors damaging blood supply.
• Permanent Organ Damage: Often stemming from medication errors (incorrect drug or dosage), causing kidney or liver failure, or delayed diagnosis of conditions like heart attack or stroke.
• Loss of Senses: Irreversible blindness or deafness resulting from negligent treatment, surgical complications, or improperly prescribed medications.

Lee, Gober & Reyna’s Austin Medical Malpractice Lawyers Are Here for You

At Lee, Gober & Reyna, our approach to medical malpractice in Austin is defined by meticulous preparation and a thorough understanding of Texas’s complex legal statutes. Our process is designed to overcome the strict hurdles established by state law, giving your complex case the best chance for success.

Rigorous Case Vetting

Texas law requires that a plaintiff serve an Expert Report on the defendant within 120 days of filing suit. This stringent deadline makes rapid, expert case evaluation essential. 

Our firm’s unique value is the immediate deployment of our network of specialized physicians and nurses. They thoroughly review your medical records to confirm the breach of the standard of care and establish direct causation, ensuring the mandatory report is technically flawless and filed on time to avoid automatic case dismissal.

Comprehensive Damage Modeling

A medical error often results in catastrophic, lifelong injuries. We collaborate with life-care planners and forensic economists to move beyond immediate medical costs. 

We meticulously model the financial impact of your injury, calculating compensation for future surgeries, long-term rehabilitation, assistive technology, and the total loss of future earning capacity, securing a recovery that accounts for the full duration of your needs.

Trial-Ready Posture

We prepare every medical malpractice case as if it is going to trial. This preparation signals to powerful hospital defense teams and insurance carriers that we are fully prepared to litigate. 

This trial-ready posture often results in more favorable settlement offers, as defendants recognize our capacity to successfully argue complex medical and legal issues before a jury.

Compensation in Austin Medical Malpractice Claims

Pursuing compensation after an injury from medical negligence in Austin involves navigating complex Texas tort reform laws, which include strict limits on certain damage categories. 

At Lee, Gober & Reyna, our medical malpractice lawyers in Terrell and Austin meticulously analyze every loss to maximize the recovery available to our clients.

Economic Losses

Economic losses cover the verifiable, tangible financial expenses resulting directly from the malpractice. This includes:

• All past and future medical bills, such as emergency care, rehabilitation, prescriptions, and long-term custodial support
• Lost wages and loss of future earning capacity, ensuring your livelihood and your family’s security are protected.

Non-Economic Losses

Non-economic damages compensate the victim for intangible suffering, including:

• Physical pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Mental anguish
• Permanent disfigurement
• Loss of enjoyment of life

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages (also known as exemplary damages) are not compensatory. Instead, they are intended to punish the defendant for grossly negligent, malicious, or fraudulent conduct and deter future wrongdoing. 

To obtain these, a plaintiff must provide clear and convincing evidence of the defendant’s extreme misconduct. These are rarely awarded but are critical in holding reckless providers fully accountable.